


Coffee and Guinness

by Orinoka



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bar/Pub, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cheesy, F/M, Internet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-27
Packaged: 2018-07-12 11:20:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7101016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orinoka/pseuds/Orinoka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clarke is all alone in New York with no Internet connection. But there is a fancy bar nearby, maybe someone there can help her. What can go wrong anyway?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Internet is Down

**Author's Note:**

> This whole work is inspired by "How to be single" (movie)  
> I've never been to NY so don't blame if the setting doesn't feel natural.  
> And I'm totally aware that this is really cheesy.

  
Moving to New York has never seemed like something easy, but Clarke Griffin is always up to the challenge. After dropping out of medical college, she finally convinced her in her desire of being an artist rather than a doctor and moved out on her own. Abby Griffin, her loving and caring mother, was ready to help Clarke in any way, especially when it comes to finances. But the word “independence” was dropped quite a few times, so Abby soon gave up on trying.  
  
Now two months into that desirable “independence”, Clarke’s business was not that great. Not many people in NYC want to buy paintings from a 20-year old girl with no real experience and connections in art industry. She was also not good at self-advertising which doesn’t help her either. Her savings were fading away and one day she woke up to realize that there is no Internet connection. And she had no money to pay the bills. And of course it’s the day when she intended to talk to her first ever Internet buyer!  
  
Almost hopeless Clarke checked if there was any Wi-Fi nearby. Everything was secured but one name still rang the bell. “TheArcBar”. She was pretty sure it’s the bar across the street. She had never been there, but maybe the owner would be nice enough to let her use their Wi-Fi? At least it was worth a try.  
  
With her ripped jeans, old “Beauty and the Beast” t-shirt with Belle on it and messy blonde hair in a bun, she didn’t look really reliable. Or grown-up. Also, the bar looked much fancier than she remembered. Well, there was no way back now, Clarke was already knocking on the wooden door.  
  
Nobody answered. She knocked twice again, looked at her wrist watch and then knocked the door with her head. The time was 10 in the morning and what bar opens before midday!  
  
She was just going to turn away when the door opened, she started falling and then her head hit someone’s chest. “Ouch” – a thought flashed in her head. “Is a chest supposed to be hard as stone?”  
  
“Are you okay?” that deep, dark voice seemed to sound a bit tired. Clarke tried to muff something in response, realized how ridiculous it was and then finally stepped back.  
  
“Um, yeah, sorry, I’m fine, I just –“  
  
She stumbled upon her own words ‘cause, holy shit, this guy is hella attractive, like, it should be illegal to be that good-looking. Warm brown eyes, dark messy curls, golden skin and lots of adorable little freckles – this face you expect to see in TV ads, not in real life. Even bags under his eyes made him look hard-working, not shitty and irresponsible like they do on others.  
  
Clarke opened and closed her mouth 3 times before finding the words to form a sentence that makes sense.  
  
“Sorry, I – I just wanted to ask you about your Wi-Fi, I can’t use mine and I have a really important deal today. But you don’t seem to be working right now, so sorry, once again,” she let this whole speech in one breath, probably talking way too fast for him to understand anything. It’s not like she’s shy or anything. This guy was just so intimidating and hot, she couldn’t even understand what affected her more.  
  
He raised his eyebrows looking both confused and surprised.  
  
“Well, uh, okay. I guess I can be helpful. But just in case, can I see the contents of your bag?”  
  
Clarke froze for a moment, startled, and then quickly unzipped her bag. There was nothing, but her laptop and some old sketches.  
  
“Great, I think you passed the terrorist test,” he nodded with confidence, which led to Clarke’s little nervous laugh, “One last thing – what’s your name, princess?  
  
He was looking at her shirt and this grin on his face made him look a little devilish.  
  
“Uh, Clarke, Clarke Griffin, “ she offered her hand for a handshake.  
  
“Nice to meet you. Bellamy Blake,” he smiled while squeezing her little hand, “So, there’s no need to standing here anymore. Come on in.”  
  
“Wait-you-, you’re really going to let me in?” Clarke was so amazed, she looked him right into the eyes for the first time. His smile got bigger.  
  
“Of course I am. Am I a good Samaritan or not? Now, come on, I still need my morning coffee. Do you want some, by the way?”  
  
“It would be really nice, thanks," she smiled back and walked into the bar.  
  
It was really fancy, no doubt. It looked more like a British pub even than a typical American bar. All the furniture was wooden, sturdy, aged a little, most probably on purpose. There was even a chandelier, only the candles were fake. While she was admiring all this, Bellamy got back with two big white mugs with Star Wars logos on them.  
  
“Hope you like black coffee, no time to turn on the fancy coffee machine,” he handed a mug to her with an apologizing smile.  
  
“Sure, I’m totally fine with it,” - she inhaled that amazing fresh coffee smell, “Just one question – why do you even have a coffee machine..in a bar?  
  
He grinned while sipping from the cup. “God, even coffee isn’t hot enough to beat him,” thought Clarke, trying not to look too invested in admiring his perfect face.  
  
“That’s a story for another time, Princess. Now as I remember, you wanted Wi-Fi. The password is “fuckmillerstopitwithchangingpasswordaintnofunnyanymore”. Should I write it down?”  
  
His face expression remained exactly the same like whatever he said made total sense.  
  
Clarke then snorted but quickly hid her amusement with the cup.  
  
“Well, that’s quite a long password, I might forget a significant word”.  
  
Bellamy sighed and rushed his right hand through his hair.  
  
“This password is a story for another time, Princess. Now pick a table, I’ll be back in a minute”.  
  
Clarke had already out her bag on the table when a sudden thought caught her attention. He said “another time”. Does this mean he intends to see her again? She didn’t have much time to process that though, Bellamy came by to hand her a piece of paper.  
  
“I’ll get on with the work preparations. Don’t be afraid to shout if you need anything,” he winked playfully going backwards to the bar.  
  
Clarke smiled watching him go and then turning just to show her his back. It was a rather muscular back even though she didn’t want to focus on that fact. Clarke sat back comfortably and turned on her laptop.

***

By the time first people entered the Arcbar, the deal was sealed. Clarke chose a public place to meet this customer, Finn, because, to be honest, she had no reason to trust him. And to be completely honest, she set the meeting place in this exact bar.  
  
She was just thinking about whether to tell or not Bellamy about this whole thing. Her face must have looked worried because she suddenly saw a coffee mug next to her laptop.  
  
“Thought you may need more caffeine, Princess”.  
  
Clarke looked up to Bellamy’s face and was once again startled by his constellations of freckles.  
  
“Uh, thank you so much, it’s so lovely of you. But I didn’t even pay for the last one”.  
  
He frowned and gave her a look that made her feel like a little girl who just said something stupid.  
  
“Princess has principles, alright. Well, for now, you owe me. We’ll figure out your debt later”.  
  
He almost turned away when she found the courage to finally open her mouth.  
  
“Hey, Bellamy, I set a meeting at your bar and I don’t know this guy and I-“  
  
“You want me to look after you while he’s here?” his smile was so wide, he definitely was amused by this situation.  
  
“Uh, yeah, that’s I was trying to say basically,” Clarke bit her lower lip, she actually regretted her decision already.  
  
To her immense surprise, he agreed.  
  
“If this guy behaves weirdly, just loudly order Guinness and go to the bathroom corridor. I’ll give you the keys to my apartment and take care of this guy”.  
  
His confidence and the accuracy of the plan made her think he had already been in this situation before.  
  
“Sounds like a solid plan,” she smiled with relief. 

***  
  
A few hours later she was sitting at the bar, worrying her lip and nervously holding a bag with her painting. Finn was an hour late.  
  
Bellamy gave her a few confused looks within last 30 minutes but couldn’t come talk to her, it was Sunday afternoon and quite a lot of people were there already.  
  
Clarke sighed and checked her wrist watch one more time. “I swear to God, I’m waiting for another 10 minutes and then going home. This is ridiculous”.  
  
She rolled her eyes and stared at the chandelier for a while when someone interrupted her thoughts.  
  
“Excuse me, are you Clarke?”  
  
She turned her face to a good looking young man with the hair from a shampoo commercial. “What is it with people today, everyone here is modeling and I just didn’t know about it?” she frowned while studying his hair.  
  
He raised his eyebrows and Clarke realized that she didn’t say anything.  
  
“Yes, it’s me. And you must be Finn?” she said as she gave him her most polite smile.

***  
  
Clarke didn’t plan on having a conversation with Finn. Not to sound rude but she just wanted her money. Well, _he ___definitely decided to hit on her.  
  
After receiving the painting he then spent 10 minutes complimenting her amazing talent, later started asking questions about her life and family. It’s worth mentioning that he totally checked out her boobs a few times which she decided to ignore. It’s not like his behavior wasn’t familiar to her. He did behave like all those horny school boys who lost their minds at the sight of her breasts. But was she getting annoyed by all of this? Hell yeah she was.  
  
With all these thoughts in her head, she kind of missed the moment when Finn’s face suddenly was really close.  
  
“Clarke, I know this is a weird way to meet someone but I like you and I want you to know it,” at this point he was almost whispering this in her mouth.  
  
Clarke froze. She had no idea how to react to it. He apparently thought it was a sign for him. He leaned even closer and closed his eyes, ready for a kiss.  
  
“GUINNESS!”  
  
Clarke almost shouted this word making Finn lose his balance and fall of the chair.  
  
“Sorry, I just really like Guinness,” she smiled awkwardly, “I’ll see you in a minute, I need to use the bathroom”.  
  
She ran to the corridor, practically bumping into a pretty dark-haired girl on the way. She immediately sat on the floor trying to process what just happened.  
  
Bellamy was there in a few minutes wearing a strange look on his face.  
  
“Hey, Clarke, someone wants to talk to you”.  
  
“I am not talking to him, he’s a weirdo!”  
  
“Not him, Princess,” he smirked, “Don’t worry, I am here, and nobody is going to try to kiss you again”.  
  
She hesitated for a bit but finally stood up.  
  
They both went to the bar, right to the same girl she accidentally hit five minutes ago. She was drinking what seemed to be the third shot of tequila.  
  
“Hey, Raven, I’ve got the girl,” Bellamy nodded in Clarke’s direction.  
  
Raven gave her a tired look.  
  
“Well, I’ve never said Finn’s cheating choices are bad. He’s got a thing for boobs”.  
  
Clarke felt the blood getting to her cheeks.  
  
Raven just smiled gloomily.  
  
“Don’t worry, I’m not here to argue with you. Finn is a lying piece of shit, we broke up. You were just the last straw”.  
  
Clarke looked up to Bellamy who just shrugged.  
  
“Girls, I have a business to run. Have a little chat if you want. And Raven, drinks on the house today,” he saluted them and went away.  
  
Clarke finally sat next to Raven and said: “So, what else are you doing when you are not keeping with pretty boys’ shit?”  
  
Raven giggled and went on with her story.

***

They both exited the bar, very drunk and very happy, somewhere around 9 p.m. They felt like they were BFFs already and even though it was probably alcohol, it was beautiful. Bellamy was engaged in their conversation at some point, they talked about their lives and families. Turned out that Raven is an engineer at some huge company and Bellamy has a sister. He even told the story behind the coffee machine. One of his employees, Monty, has an enormous caffeine addiction. He needs a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, then he goes to Starbucks and then, when he’s finally at work, he drinks another cup. Just pure black coffee, it’s like a fuel for him.  
  
Eventually, they all exchanged their numbers. The Arcbar was totally going to be their hang out place and Clarke was so happy about it.


	2. Now Is Not The Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not everything in life goes our way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is divided into 4 parts, 1&3 are Clarke's POV, as the other ones - Bellamy's.  
> Also, the whole chapter turned out to be sadder than I initially intended it to be. See my shitty explanation of that fact below.

“Are these sweatpants, Clarke? Really?”

Clarke swiftly sipped her coffee and looked up to Bellamy. 

“Well, don’t try to act like you are traumatized by my look. Or have you never seen a girl in anything rather than full fig at 10 a.m.?” she definitely wasn’t impressed by his remark. 

He huffed though he didn’t seem to be annoyed.

“Okay, Princess, I know this is caffeine deficiency talking through you so I’m not going to take what you said personally. But just a reminder – you’re sitting in my bar at 10 a.m., drinking my coffee and using my Internet. Try to be more polite next time,” after this speech, he gave her a parental pat on her cheek and walked away.

Clarke immediately stuck out her tongue and only then, after the satisfaction of this deed, she got back to work.

It had been 2 months since their awkward meeting and they totally felt much more comfortable around each other. Not like Bellamy was awkward with her in the first place but Clarke did have some improvement. He wasn’t so intimidating and hot as she thought at first. Even though one time when he took off his shirt in the strip poker she almost choked on her beer.

They opened to each other a few times more. Once they were sitting after the bar’s closing, Raven took a ride home and they just had a huge drunk talk about some deep personal stuff. Bellamy mostly talked about his love for his one and only sister, Octavia. But when he mentioned his mother’s death and she saw tears in the corners of his eyes, Clarke just grasped his hand encouraging him to tell everything he felt the need to. Afterwards, she told him about her loving father who passed away 3 years ago. Bellamy was looking at her the whole time and she was still holding his hand.

Clarke spent quite a lot of time with Raven as she went to the bar almost every night after work. They even went shopping last weekend because apparently, Raven forgot any other ways of getting rid of stress rather than getting really drunk. It was so much fun, they basically spent two days together, acting weird at shops and eating food from a taste palette of a 5-year old. Of course, there was an accident when these two are together. At a craft shop Clarke tried to get something from a high shelf but instead poured glitter all over her body and had to use staff’s restroom to wash away this blue glitter from her face, while Raven, like a responsible mother she is, was buying her new clothes. So Clarke spent the rest of the Saturday wearing a “The Little Mermaid” tank top because the closest shop to them was Hot Topic and Raven was too lazy to travel anywhere. Clarke had been founding glitter in her hair to this day.

***

Back to this Tuesday morning with grumpy Clarke coloring her last drawing of Merida for a 7-year old girl’s birthday. Doing Merida’s hair was the hardest part as usual and she was concentrating so hard, she didn’t notice Bellamy standing beside her for some time.

“That looks incredible, Clarke,” he smiled at her when she finally looked his way. “Who is that?”

“Princess Merida from ”Brave”. Have you never seen it?” her voice was filled with surprise.

“Well, Princess, I’ve watched every Disney movie imaginable with my sister but the moment she turned 13, cartoons were forgotten and that was 8 years ago. And I am not that kind of person who watches them by myself on daily basis,” he smirked and looked back to the drawing.

“You still should totally watch it!” Clarke almost jumped on her chair from excitement. “The animation is so good, like, the amount of time they spent just on making Merida’s hair is insane! You can’t tell from the drawing but, in the movie, she has more than 100 000 hairs! And all the Scottish culture references and different tartans. Maybe the plot is not its biggest forte but as a piece of art it’s totally worth a try!” Clarke’s eyes were fired up with such joy and passion, Bellamy couldn’t hold a little laugh.

She quickly pulled her laptop from the bag beside the table and pointed him to the chair next to her.

“You have to watch it right now or you’ll feed me promises for months,” she answered his questioning look. “Just half an hour, you can spare it and then you can go and never watch it again if you don’t like what you see”. 

Bellamy sighed. He could argue with her but, in this state of determination, it seemed useless. She was stubborn indeed.

The first ten minutes or so he didn’t pay that much attention and pretended to yawn a few times, to which she rolled her eyes. But then a song came up and Clarke all of a sudden started to sing along.

_“When the cold wind is a'calling and the sky is clear and bright; misty mountains sing and beckon, lead me out into the light”._

Her voice seemed so clear though she didn’t hit all the notes; it echoed on the walls of the empty bar. Bellamy forgot about the screen as he was looking into her eyes which were radiating with the beauty of pure bliss. She wasn’t just singing it because she liked the melody or words. There was a distinct emotional connection; she felt something like this before.

The song was shorter than Bellamy was hoping it to be. Clarke finally turned her face to him and her smile gave him some tingling sensation.

Bellamy was ready to tell her something but the front door creaked and a young man showed up in the doorway. Clarke paused the film.

“Hey, lovebirds, did I interrupt something?” he smiled and approached their table.

“Hey, Nathan,” Bellamy grumbled, emphasizing his name.

You could see from Miller’s face that he immediately started analyzing his recent behaviour because Bellamy called him by his first name only if he messed up something. And he did, just now.

“Hi, Miller. I was already going home, so don’t worry – he’s all yours,” Clarke stood up and began to pack her stuff.

“Yeah, sure, that is all I want right now. To be alone with Bellamy, my friend” he let a nervous laugh as Bellamy gave him the deadliest look possible. 

“See you later, boys!” Clarke waved them and moved to the exit.

“Bye!” guys said at the same time.

As soon as the door closed Miller lifted his arms in defense.

“Hey, man, I really didn’t want to screw it up. If only I knew-“

“It’s okay. There was nothing to screw up,” Bellamy muttered and put his hands on his temples. “I don’t wanna talk about it. You better get ready for work”. 

“Sure, boss”.

***

Next evening Clarke was sitting in the bar, lazily browsing the Internet. Raven couldn’t make it because of her job, but Clarke didn’t want to sit at home all by herself so she still went to the bar. She didn’t talk to Bellamy since they watched “Brave” and it even seemed like he was avoiding her. Yet someone who would want to avoid you, probably wouldn’t be looking at you every five minutes, right? So Clarke decided to not interfere in Bellamy’s life for now and also to stop analyzing his behaviour. It could lead to over thinking the situation and sabotaging this whole relationship and Clarke just wanted to have some friends in this big lonely city.

After finishing her second pint of Guinness, she considered if ordering another one would be a good choice. It’s not like she was going to get wasted on Wednesday night anyway. And she enjoyed that beer really much. But, unfortunately, her treat was ruined by someone shouting her name.

“Clarke!” a young woman made her way through the crowd to Clarke’s table.

The beer went through Clarke’s nose as she recognized her.

“Lexa! Haven’t seen you in a while,” she muttered while wiping her face with a napkin.

“Yeah, since the breakup, I guess,” Lexa smiled a bit awkwardly and leaned on the table. “So, how are you? I didn’t know that you moved to NY”.

Clarke took a sip of beer before answering, to avoid looking at Lexa’s gorgeous hair that was flowing over her shoulders. And just Lexa in general, Clarke forgot how magnificent she was; she looked superb even in that cheap-looking tight white dress she was wearing that night.

“Yeah, I wanted to have a fresh start and New York seemed like a pretty good choice. And it’s not like I had many reasons to stay in Boston anyway,” Clarke couldn’t hide the bitterness in her voice when she emphasized the word “anyway”.

“Clarke--I thought you wanted our relationship to end. And I was also sure there were no hard feelings between us,” Lexa frowned but even that couldn’t erase the fact that she looked like a fairy queen in trolls’ kingdom.

Clarke only pursed her lips, still waiting for Lexa’s explanation for being here. Lexa sighed and looked away from her. This situation described their relationship so well.

“Anyway, I am with my friends now, do you wanna have a drink with us?” 

Clarke couldn’t make up any good excuse to decline the invitation so she just stood up and followed Lexa to the other side of the bar. 

Bellamy was standing nearby and they looked at each other. Bellamy raised his eyebrows in a silent question and Clarke slightly shook her head, saying “everything’s fine”.

She then noticed that everyone in Lexa’s clique wore the same ridiculous dress. Some suspicions crawled into her mind but she pushed them away for now.

Clarke introduced herself to some of the girls she didn’t meet before. And afterward, she turned to Lexa who seemed rather nervous all this time. 

“Um, Clarke, I know this is not the best way of delivering such news, but—I’m so excited about this and I just hope you can share my happiness,” at this point she was staring at Clarke with her huge deer eyes.

“I’m getting married”. 

Clarke felt like she breathed in too much air, and she was suffering from hyperventilating now. And a second later it disappeared; all that was left was emptiness. But she pulled a straight face anyway.

“I-I am really happy for you,” Clarke made the words come out of her mouth instead of a cry which she was holding. 

Lexa let out a relieved sigh and smiled.

“Clarke, you’re the best. I knew you would understand”.

That was a weird thing to say after what happened literally five minutes ago, but Lexa seemed really eager to forget about it.

“I met Anya soon after the breakup and we fell in love so quickly. She was going to move to New York because of her new job, so we decided to have a wedding here. It may seem a bit rushed, it’s been only three months, but I’m sure you moved on too, right?” Lexa finally stopped her flow of excitement to startle Clarke with this question.

“Wh-what do you mean?” she blinked a few times as it would have helped understand human’s speech better.

“I mean – do you have a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend?” the look of confusion appeared on Lexa’s pretty face.

Now the evening reached its lowest point in Clarke’s opinion. She could already feel the humiliation of saying that she had no romantic experience in months when her ex was engaged. That was it, the point lower than the ground floor.

Suddenly someone was standing by Clarke’s side.

“Hey, Princess, so sorry for making you wait”.

Clarke recognized this smooth like chocolate mousse voice. She turned her body in his direction when Bellamy grabbed her around the waist and pulled so close, she could hear him breathing. And then he was kissing her.

That kiss was fire. That kiss was a desire to be burned. It was pure liquid passion, reduced to a shot. It felt like she was melting in his arms and sinking in his lips. It lasted both forever and not long enough.

When it was over, they were still really close and she could fully admire his shining eyes and all the little freckles on the tip of his nose.

He turned away first to witness the impression they made. Nobody expected such a plot twist, even Lexa couldn’t hide her surprise.

“Excuse me, ladies, a moment of passion,” Bellamy even winked at them, nailing this “cheeky boyfriend” role.

“Uh-it’s okay, we understand,” Lexa smiled politely. ”Love is hard to contain. So, I’m Lexa, and you’re-“

“Bellamy Blake. The owner of this bar”.

This sounded so much like having an acquaintance with James Bond that Clarke had to make herself not roll her eyes.

“Wow, nice to meet you,” she raised her eyebrows which could be interpreted both like respect and mockery.

It was quite clear that they should go. And luckily, Lexa thought of the same thing.

“So, Clarke, the wedding is next weekend. We could probably find you invitations if you want”.

Bellamy took the lead once again.

“Oh, I wish we could, but we have plans already. It was nice meeting you!” he walked away pretty fast, pulling Clarke with him.

***

“Bellamy, how can I possibly repay you for that?”

They were standing outside the bar where Bellamy quickly led Clarke after this scene because she looked like she could use some fresh air.

“We’ll see, Princess. Your debt is getting bigger, just so you know,” he smiled but avoided looking at her. He could still taste her lips on his. And see how Clarke was looking at that girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it took me three weeks to write this chapter, which for 2000 words is, like, insane??? I wish I could say it was only because of the exams, but it's not the case. My problem was that I had plot ideas, a bunch of them, though I didn't have enough talent to pull it together rather quickly.  
> Let me know if you even want the last chapter of this, 'cause it took such a weird turn, this chapter is a bit depressing even.  
> Also, I should apologize to all the readers and writers with a good taste for a phrase "smooth like chocolate mousse". You won't believe how hilarious it sounded at 1 a.m.


End file.
